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"How Deep Is Your Love" by Bee Gees
"How Deep Is Your Love" is a pop ballad written and recorded by the Bee Gees in 1977 and released as a single in September of the same year. It was ultimately used as part of the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. It was a hit single in the United Kingdom and Australia, reaching #3. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 on December 24, 1977 (becoming the first of six US number-one hits in a row), ended the 10-week reign of Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" and stayed in the Top 10 for a then-record 17 weeks. The single spent six weeks on the Billboard ''Adult Contemporary chart. It is listed at number 22 on the 55th anniversary edition of ''Billboard's All Time Top 100. Alongside "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever", it is one of the group's three tracks on the list. The song was covered by British pop group Take That for their 1996 Greatest Hits album, reaching number-one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. "How Deep Is Your Love" ranked number 375 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In a British TV special shown in December 2011, it was voted "The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song" by ITV viewers. The song spent 33 weeks in one chart run, creating a record. It was originally intended for Yvonne Elliman, but she later recorded "If I Can't Have You" instead. During the Bee Gees' 2001 Billboard magazine interview, Barry Gibb reportedly said that "How Deep Is Your Love" was his favorite Bee Gees song. Besides Saturday Night Fever, the song has also been featured in other films such as Donnie Brasco, Ready to Rumble, Forever Fever, Tongan Ninja, Anger Management, Adam's Apples, Disco, Sex and the City, A Dog's Purpose and Baywatch, and in TV shows such as Get a Life, Ballykissangel, Marienhof, You Are The One, Two Faces, Nip/Truck, The Simpsons, and Parenthood. Composition and Recording Following mixing for Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live, they began recording songs for what was to be the next stuidio album after 1976's Children of the World. Then the call came from producer Robert Stigwood requesting songs for a movie he was producing. The Bee Gees obliged and gave him five songs for the film, one of them was "How Deep Is Your Love". The song was written mainly by the Bee Gees themselves, Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. Barry worked out the melody with keyboardist Blue Weaver, though he is not credited as a songwriter on this track. Co-producer Albhy Galuten later admitted the contribution of Weaver on this tune: "One song where Blue Weaver had a tremendous amount of input. There was a lot of things from his personality. That's one where his contribution was quite significant, not in a songwriting sense, though when you play piano, it's almost like writing the song. Blue had a lot of influence in the piano structure of that song". Weaver tells his story behind this track: "One morning, it was just myself and Barry in the studio. He said, 'Play the most beautiful chord you know', and I just played, what happened was, I'd throw chords at him and he'd say, 'No, not that chord', and I'd keep moving around and he'd say, 'Yeah, that's a nice one' and we'd go from there. Then I'd play another thing - sometimes, I'd be following the melody line that he already had and sometimes I'd most probably lead him somewhere else by doing what I did. I think Robin came in at some point. Albhy also came in at one point and I was playing an inversion of a chord, and he said, 'Oh no, I don't think it should be that inversion, it should be this', and so we changed it to that, but by the time Albhy had come in, the song was sort of there." A demo was made at Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, with additional recording done at Miami-based Criteria Studios when they got back there. As Weaver says: "We started work about 12 o'clock maybe one o'clock in the morning, and that demo was done at about three or four o'clock in the morning. Albhy played piano on the demo, I'd drunk too much or gone to bed or something. Then I woke up the next morning and listened to that, and then put some strings on it and that was it. Then we actually recorded it for real in Criteria. The chords and everything stayed the same, the only thing that changes from that demo is that when we got to Criteria, I worked out the electric piano part which became the basis of the song. It was the sound of the piano that makes the feel of that song." Despite Weaver's absence on the first demon of the tune as he fell asleep, Galuten claimed, "Even though I did the demo because he wasn't there, there were a lot of things from his personality 'How Deep Is Your Love'" On the song's lyrics, Barry revealed: "A lot of the textures you hear in the song were added on later. We didn't change any lyrics, mind you, but the way we recorded it was a little different than the way we wrote in the terms of construction. A little different for the better, I think, the title 'How Deep Is Your Love' we thought was perfect because of all the connotations involved in that sentence, and that was simply it". There were some talk of singer Yvonne Elliman recording the song, but according to Barry, their manager Robert Stigwood said, "You've got to do this song yourself, you should not give it to anybody". Reception Release "How Deep Is Your Love" was released as a single in September 1977 everywhere except in the United Kingdom, where it was released on 14 October 1977. By the time their album Children of the World ''was recorded, it was mostly established that Barry Gibb was now the group's primary vocalist, mostly being falsetto leads with his occasional breathy voice. Even most of the backing vocals were done by Barry, such that his fellow brothers Robin and Maurice are barely heard in the track, even though they are in it. Despite this, Robin sings the melody for the chorus for this song and audibly sings various ad libs during this tune. Two music videos were made for this song. In one, the brothers are singing while an image of a woman shows throughout the video. Barry Gibb had his beard shaven off in this video, as in the video for their hit "Night Fever". A second video was later made in which the brothers sing while passing by a stream of rainbow lights. In this video Barry is bearded. On the ''Cashbox charts on the week February 4, 1978, when it was at #13, the soundtrack's second single "Stayin' Alive" was at #1 with "Night Fever" debuted at #71 on the same week. When "How Deep Is Your Love" became a UK #3, Barry exclaimed: "You have no idea what a thrill it is to have a Top Five single in England. With all the new wave and punk rock out, I would have thought something like 'How Deep Is Your Love' wouldn't have a chance. We always kept going forward and we're getting stronger every day". Critical Reception The song won Best Pop Performance by a Group at the 20th Grammy Awards which were held on February 23, 1978. The song also received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 35th Golden Globe awards held on January 28, 1978. The award went to "You Light Up My Life" by Kasey Cisyk. At the time of both award ceremonies, the song was still in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. AllMusic's Bill Janovitz stated that the song's "baroque orchestration and acoustic guitar-driven arrangements of those early songs have been supplanted by a wash of Fender Rhodes electric piano, but the trademark vocal harmonies are the same and the melody is as sublimely gorgeous and as central to the arrangement as on those early songs. And the Bee Gees always showed an acute understanding of R&B grooves and an innate soulfulness, even at their poppiest moments." 1983 Lawsuit See: Selle v. Gibb In 1983, the Bee Gees were sued by a Chicago-based songwriter, Ronald Selle, who claimed that the brothers Gibb stole melodic material from one of his songs, "Let It End", and used it in "How Deep Is Your Love". At trial, the jury returned a finding for Selle. The attorney for the Bee Gees immediately asked for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The basis for the motion was that Selle had failed to show, as was required by the law, that the Bee Gees had prior access to “Let It End”. Even Selle had admitted that he'd sent out his demo tape to only a few recording companies, none of whom did business with the Bee Gees. Selle also admitted that there were some similarities between his song and several Bee Gees compositions that predated his song by several years, as well as similarities with the Beatles song "From Me to You" written by Lennon-McCartney. The judge ruled in favor of the Bee Gees. Selle appealed the ruling, but it was upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals which agreed that Selle had not proven his case. Cover Versions * In 2017, PJ Morton released a cover version on his album "Gumbo." * In 2010, smooth jazz artist Jaared released a cover version on his album "Manhattan Nights." * In 2007, duo The Bird and the Bee released a cover version, featuring Australian pop star Sia as a backing vocalist. * The 1996 Take That version (discussed below). * In 1995 Portrait released their version as a single. * In 1993, Luther Vandross released a version as Medley How Deep Is Your Love / It's Takes a Fool which in turn was an Intro to the Album's final song, "Never Let Me Go" which was the album's name. When John Frusciante was a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers he used to play a live cover of the song. Take That Version Take That's version of the song was released as a single from their Greatest Hits compilation in 1996. The single went on to become what was to be the band's final single to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart until their 2006 comeback single "Patience" a decade later. The song stayed at number one in the UK charts for three weeks. The single sold 671,000 copies and has received a Platinum sales status certification in the UK. The song also topped the charts in Ireland, Denmark, Latvia, Italy, Israel and Spain. Music Video The music video shows the four members of the band tied to chairs in a basement. A blonde woman with heavy mascara (actress and model Paula Hamilton) walks into the basement and circles them individually pulling their hair. She then puts the four members into her van and drives down the motorway. She stops by a reservoir and has the four members placed on the edge, she points at each member before grabbing Gary's rope and pushes him back still holding on. Her fingers slip through the rope and he falls backwards, the others look shocked as she does. She then smirks. The music video can be viewed here. Personnel * Gary Barlow - lead vocals, backing vocals * Jason Orange - backing vocals * Howard Donald - backing vocals * Mark Owen - backing vocals Track Listing UK Cassette single (74321 35591 5) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Never Forget" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:38 UK CD single no. 1 (74321 35559 2) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Every Guy" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 5:36 # "Lady Tonight" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 4:13 # "Sunday To Saturday" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 3:48 UK CD single no. 2 (74321 35560 2) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Back for Good" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:06 # "Babe" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 6:10 # "Never Forget" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:38 EU CD single no. 1 (74321 35243 2) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Back For Good" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:06 EU CD single no. 2 (74321 35244 2) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Back for Good" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:06 # "Every Guy" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 5:36 Japanese CD single (BVCP-2406) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Every Guy" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 5:36 # "Babe" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 6:10 # "Back for Good" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:06 UK 7" vinyl – jukebox release only (74321 35632 2) # "How Deep Is Your Love" – 3:41 # "Never Forget" (live from Earl's Court & Manchester Nynex) – 7:38 Videos